High End Training Heart Rate - Zone 4

Marathon To Half Marathon Race Pace. Between 85/87 And 90 % Of Max Heart Rate.

For our runner with a maximum heart rate of 200 this means training heart rate of 172/175 to 180.This is faster work. This is pushing the pace. Done correctly though, Zone 4 running heart rate helps you get into race mode. Now we are moving above the threshold...

Above your marathon training and racing pace.

You use more oxygen than what you manage to breath in.

For parts of a marathon training program this Zone 4 should be a major focus.

But not too much and not too close to a marathon. And it should always be controlled towards the end of each run. No sudden bursts.

This Zone, in moderation, helps increase the endurance further.

Again, this goes for runners at any level. Whether this is your first marathon/half marathon or if you are at an advanced level.

But It Is a Double-Edged-Sword :

Too little of it and you will have trouble tuning your Zone 3 training into race pace, especially before a half marathon.

Too much of it and you will end up overtrained/underperforming. Especially if combined with too much training in the Zone 2.

A common "mistake" that is easy to do is to place too much of the training in zone 4 - for too many months of the year.

The result of this is that one is losing out on the great benefit of training zone 3, is it easier to get overtrained and when you finally want to use the zone 4 training to peak the shape there is simply nothing left to peak...

You have the "dead legs syndrome" that probably all runners have experienced. In most cases, this is caused by excessive work in Zone 4.

We have one zone left now. It is Zone 5.

Above zone 5 is really just race pace (so no heart rate zone 6). You can check out Zone 5 for heart rate running here or click on the articles below for the other zones.